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If anything, individuals seem to have stopped inventing/investigating. It used to be that persons of means would use their means in the pursuit of some expansio
by weego 11y ago
If anything, individuals seem to have stopped inventing/investigating. It used to be that persons of means would use their means in the pursuit of some expansion of their knowledge. Now it's in pursuit of more means.
- sophacles 11y agoI don't know about this - one of the things I like to do when I travel is visit the local hackerspace. I've been to quite a few of them around the country, and they all seem to be full of wonderful people exploring and inventing for the fun of it.
- knodi123 11y agoThis is a common historical fallacy. Like "It used to be that Greeks would sit around inventing geometry, philosophy, and democracy. Now they just ruin banks." There were always both kinds of people, and the inventors who are driven by the love of science and learning have always been a minority. It's just that the people who only care about personal wealth rarely make it into history books, whereas the iconoclastic scientists frequently do. And the same is true today.
- edanm 11y ago"It's just that the people who only care about personal wealth rarely make it into history books, whereas the iconoclastic scientists frequently do." Arguably even this isn't true - Many people know the name of, say, Archimedes and Newton, but I doubt it's more than the people who know Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan. Might be close though.
- knodi123 11y agoWhat I'm trying to say is, what percentage of people can name a couple of great thinkers from the classical era? Now compare that to the percentage of people who can name a wealthy merchant or banker from the same period.